Growing Apart: A Reflection on Friendships

I treat every friendship I get into with utmost care and respect. I cherish all my friends and try to be a good friend, though not easy but, I give it my all. I do all of this because I have come to understand that while some friends can last a life time, others can be for a season.

While we hope that things go smoothly with our friends and the friendship blossoms beautifully as we journey through life, we are not prepared for the unforeseen challenges that lie before us.

Family, friends, or even partners who share our daily lives can suddenly seem distant, unfamiliar, or hard to understand.

This is a very beautiful prompt from the Realtalk community, and I have spent a few hours reading some lovely entries.

It is no news that people change, and some of these changes can be as a result of so many factors, while some of these factors may or may not be connected to you, your friendship with this said person can be affected regardless, and that hurts.

We can only ask people what the cause of their change in attitude or behavior is but we cannot cajole them to change for us, really, there's little we can do in such a situation. As hurtful as it is to see the person you once held dear become a stranger, there is nothing you can do to change them completely.

You can try to be more patient, understanding, or kind but once an adult's mind is made up, it can be a hard nut to crack. While we try to be patient and understanding with these people and await a miracle, most times this miracle never happens. In no time, whatever we have for these people disappears into thin air, and what are left are the memories from our interaction with them.

Change is constant, but never beat yourself for another human's change. You can apologize, you can do everything within your power to salvage what is left of the friendship, but never beat yourself up or regret knowing them in the first place.

I have had so many friends who have turned strangers, and while it hurts me so much, I never regret knowing them rather, I feel privileged to have had a beautiful relationship with them. It's not so easy becoming strangers with someone you hold dear, but as time goes on, you begin to heal and in due time, the memories of this person don't hurt you as much as it did before, you remember them smiling instead of feeling angry and disappointed.

This is my entry to the Realtalk Community weekly prompt and I invite @seunruth @tayodartist and @kingsleyy to participate.

_{Images are mine.}